Drunken graffiti artist given Asbo (From Daily Echo)

Drunken graffiti artist given Asbo

12:47pm Sunday 22nd June 2008 in News By Echo Reporter

A teenager has been issued with a two year Asbo for causing thousands of pounds of damage on a drunken graffiti rampage through Winchester city centre.

Eldon Griffiths-James, admitted to six charges of criminal damage before Basingstoke magistrates yesterday.

The 19-year-old gardener, of Nuns Road, spray painted sites across the city on May 2 and the early hours of May 3.

His tag - Nemew - was found daubed in white paint at locations including River Park Leisure Centre, Gladstone Street and St George's Street.

Some of the tags were in four feet by six feet lettering.

Winchester City Council is still calculating the exact cost of removing the graffiti, which took around two weeks to scrub off. Robert Simpson, mitigating, said that the teen went on the painting spree after drinking 14 cans of lager and taking cocaine.

Officers searched his home the next day and found his clothing covered in white paint and the word Nemew on his computer.

Griffiths-James, asked magistrates to take into account a further 36 matters of criminal damage and was given a 12-month community order for the graffiti and for breaking the terms of a conditional discharge.